Beach Tranquility Yields to Fighting Gators!
- Chuck Hewett
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
We finished our stay on Captiva with a morning on the beach and an afternoon at the waterpark. Sadly, I didn't photograph the water park slides but, you should know, that Cap seriously practiced for the 2030 Olympic luge event logging fast times on all three of the exciting slides. It was fun standing in line with kids ranging from 4 - 16 but even more fun sluicing down the twisting, turning, winding slides and shooting out at the bottom into a nosefull of chlorinated water. Who's the biggest kid of all?
At the beach, we noticed that the resort had mounded sand and planted miles of beach grass. It looks like an unlikely defense against the next major storm but perhaps it will slow the destruction a little bit.
In between the beach and the waterpark, while waiting for the very convenient trolley to pick us up, I photographed an osprey family. Dad very proudly brought home a 6-8 inch fish and stood watch while Mom divvied it up for their chicks. She may have had a bite or two; dad did not.
We left Captiva at first light on Monday to travel the 85 miles to Riverhouse Marina at Moore Haven on the Caloosahatchie River--part of the Okeechobee Waterway. Our early departure afforded us sunrise while underway crossing Pine Sound to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
The beautiful sunrise boded well for an interesting and pretty day. A number of pods of dolphins graced our trip and we saw several manatees as well. Not to be outdone by their marine friends, the avian team afforded nesting osprey, a bald eagle, little blue heron, northern perula, ibis and an island with dozens of roosting egrets
Most exciting of all though were the gators. We stopped at Port Labelle marina for fuel and a pump out and, while I did the dirty work, the Admiral spotted the resident gator and he posed for her. This wasn't far from where I fell in the water a year ago and out swam the gator with the Admiral dragging me onto the swim platform. While I didn't get
to see her gator, the dock mistress and I did see a water moccasin swimming its way through the marina. I thought I'd missed out on the gator fun but, when we got to the Ortona Lock, we saw not one but five (all at the same time) as we waited for the lock to open. And, the next morning, after a beautiful sunrise at Riverhouse Marina, a baby
gator swam up to the boat. We weren't done yet. When we arrived at Roland and Mary Ann Martin Marina at Clewiston, a gator greeted us in the boat turning basin and another lounged in the small pond behind the marina. I guess there are plenty of them. The Tiki Hut at the Roland and Mary Ann Martin Marina offered gator three ways--
Lake "O" Gator Tail bites, tacos, and a full-fledged Gator Tail Basket. Back in the days when I was doing a lot of business in Florida, I had gator tail one night with my good
friend, Mike Hyde. It may have been the preparation and the presentation wasn't much, but I don't need to eat gator again as much as I should probably help to reduce the population.
But, let me take you back to Moore Haven where we spent Monday night. Founded in 1915 by James Moore, as a bustling commercial center for central Florida, Moore Haven today has a population of approximately 1700. The town fathers incorporated Moore Haven in 1917 and promptly elected Marian Newhall Horwitz as the first female mayor south of the Mason Dixon line. Described by a newspaper of the day as "All Business from Head to Foot", she rode horseback to the office every morning at 5:15. She served a relatively short time (several years) before resigning to run her late husband's business. Known briefly as "little Chicago", Moore Haven could not recover from two back on back hurricanes, the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 and the Okeechobee Huricane of 1928. Since that double whammy and despite its advantageous position at the intersection of the Caloosahatchie River and Lake Okeechobee, Moore Haven has remained a backwater. It does boast a highway bridge that's nearly a half mile long with a 320 foot concrete I-girder span, supposedly the longest such span in Florida when it was built in 2000. At 55 feet high, it's purpose was to make it much easier for vessels to
transit the area. Sadly, the South Central Florida Express Railroad Bridge is just beyond it. At only five feet high, it has to open for all but the smallest vessels. Opening the
bridge for vessels is not a priority for the railroad and we have been "stuck" there all three times that we transited this stretch of water. At least this time, we did get to see a US Sugar train pass over it. The Moore Haven Lock, just beyond the railroad bridge, further slows travel through the area though I can't say enough about the courtesy, efficiency, and responsiveness of the lock keepers. They are terrific.
Moore Haven also boasts an extensive park with a large splash pad and extensive playground for the kids along with riverside grills and picnic tables for families. It appears that they have their public spending priorities in good order.
Not having eaten much Monday evening, the Admiral requested a large breakfast before we left Moore Haven on Tuesday morning. Cap was happy to oblige and put the newish grill in the cockpit to good use. Luckily, I got breakfast prepared just before a large,
prescribed sugar cane burn plastered the boat with very nasty soot. You can imagine what that did to our white roof, decks, and every other non-vertical surface. Yuck, yuck, yuck. It would take me three hours that afternoon in Clewiston to get that cleaned up. And, even then, more "stuff" fell from the sky leaving me facing another, not quite so significant, clean-up job this morning.
I gotta go.
AN INTERESTING COUPLE OF DAYS!